‘Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands.'
These words have borne a host of interpretations as they have been used as the basis for various theories. But what he is being told to do is fairly simple. He is to write what he has seen - the vision of the glorified Son of Man and the seven golden lampstands - the things that are - the present state and position of the seven churches - and the things that will be hereafter - the impact of coming events on the seven churches, and their final destiny, as will be described in the letters and the remainder of the book.
The word ‘hereafter' means simply ‘after the present moment'. The letters to the seven churches include descriptions in the future, and things even reaching into eternity. Nothing could be after those. Thus to make ‘hereafter' mean ‘after the time described in the letters to the seven churches' is totally artificial. We must therefore seriously dispute the suggestion that it can be given the stressed meaning of ‘after these things' in the sense that it relegates the happenings to the far future beyond the time span of the seven churches.
It should be noted that these words to some extent parallel the words spoken of God in Revelation 1:4; Revelation 1:8 but in a different order. The One Who is and Who was and Who is to come, has brought about and will bring about that ‘which you saw, and the things which are and the things that will happen hereafter'. This in itself stresses that ‘the things that are' refers to the things in being at that time, controlled by the God Who is.
A glance at the letters to the seven churches shows quite clearly that they themselves contain elements which are eternal which will be enjoyed by the overcomers in the seven churches. What could be after those? Besides the letters include descriptions which are dealt with later in Revelation, and consistent exegesis means that we must take the two together. The truth is that the natural translation here is ‘hereafter', ‘after this point in time', and ‘the things that are' means ‘are now' i.e. the present state of the churches at that point in time. Any other meaning is forced and unnatural.
‘The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands are seven churches.'
What he is to write is here summarised, ‘the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands'. And what is that mystery? That the seven stars in His right hand are the (seven) angels of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the seven churches.
In the Old Testament the sevenfold lampstand was connected with the two sons of oil, the anointed servants of God (Zechariah 4), who received spiritual power from Him. In the New the seven lampstands are connected with seven powerful angels. So the churches can go forward in confident assurance, knowing that the coming Christ is among them and that the angels responsible for their wellbeing are held in His right hand. Though other angels may fail, no one will pluck these from His hand. He has full control over them, as He has over the churches.
In all this there are no grounds for making Chapter s 4-19 refer to something that only occurs in the distant future. They are, with the exception of the description of the Second Coming itself, (and like Peter and Paul before them they knew that they had no guarantee of survival to that glorious event), something that the churches will themselves experience This is reinforced by what is actually said to the churches, which includes references to later Chapter s in Revelation.
On the other hand it is not necessary, for this reason, to state that chapter 4-19 refer only to what will happen to the churches at that time. That they will happen in their near experience does not exclude their happening again and again throughout the period before the Second Coming. John foresaw that the churches would face what is described in the book. He foresaw events of the future. What he did not foresee was that such events would be repeated again and again through the ages at different levels of intensity. This it was not God's pleasure to reveal. Whenever such things do reoccur His people can be encouraged by this vision.
Jesus, and the Bible, make clear that the timing of the second coming and therefore the things intrinsically related to it are totally unknown except to God. That timing is such a secret that it was even unknown to Jesus while He was on earth (Mark 13:32). Thus there must always be a valid distinction timewise between those things and the things that occur before. There must indeed always be an unknown gap between them, the extent of which cannot be postulated. Peter can see it in terms of ‘a thousand years' (2 Peter 3:8). Jesus certainly told men that His coming could not take place until the Temple had been utterly destroyed, for He knew that had to happen. He told them of other things that must take place. But He could give no idea of the time of His return because He specifically stated that He did not know it (Mark 13:32).
With regard to the view that the seven churches refer to stages in the consecutive condition of the church through the ages, this owes more to subtle selection from history rather than to truth, and to our conceit that the church in the Western world is mainly the one that matters. History is so diverse that any order of the seven churches could have been fitted into history. What is true, however, is that through history different parts of the church have regularly been in a similar condition to that pictured in the seven churches. At any one time all the churches described are typified somewhere. The view has truth in that the central message of Revelation did illuminate events through history.